Editorial

Ethics in suffrage

Near countdown for the May 13 midterm polls. And how ready are members of the electorate in their pick for those to be seated in the House of Representatives and the Senate and local government posts?

On the side of the Commission on Elections, the poll body pronounced the readiness in terms of police deployments to secure the precincts, the assignment of teachers as election inspectors, enough supply of electricity, assurance of batteries of vote counting machines that would last for 16 hours even in cases of brownouts, protection against hacking, and security assurance by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. But will there be no more cases of disenfranchisement? 

As reasserted by Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Ligayen-Dagupan, the right to vote is the “backbone of democracy,” though not absolute, it comes with a responsibility. It is putting ethics to suffrage and public service to keep democracy alive.

Quoting St. John Paul II, the archbishop said: “Democracy without values can easily turn into a thinly disguised totalitarianism,” as he upended that “the right to vote must be based on the right understanding of human dignity.”

Putting one’s faith in the exercise of suffrage, he said: “God will judge us for the way we vote. Our children will judge us for the way we vote. The election is important for them. Think of them.” It means that suffrage is associated with leadership or governance at work and delivery of what are needed for change. “Be Godly voters. Be careful. Be critical. Be courageous…,” the archbishop further stated as a reminder to voters in whose hands the fate of governance would lie.

So voting is a big deal because people put into place their representatives to steer the wheel of government and public service. The elective positions are never an economic enterprise but aptly managing the affairs of government, the machinery that sustains the functioning and maintenance of a society for its existence… for within a society are the living organisms that breathe.

So dear voters, you have the responsibility and moral duty to place the rightful representatives to our national and local governments. Be always sure that the people you vote are the most deserving and not those who will spirit way the resources that are to be bestowed upon whom they serve. Good choice of genuine leaders is good for us but we suffer if we choose the untrustworthy ones.

Your choice… your fate. Put ethics in the election process. And those who enter public service through election, may they be most ethical in performance or run the risk of recall if ever there will be. So be it.

Be ready for election day!